Did anyone else think Braid sucked?

[zelda2fanboy]

I know you'll accuse me of being lazy, dumb, casual, or wanting my hand held. That's not the case.

Oh good, thanks for clearing that up. Because that's exactly what is sounds like.

Aah, flame war!!!! I really liked echochrome. Didn't need a guide/youtube/internet for that. I only used youtube because I felt like the game was gleefully wasting my time and I wasn't enjoying it at all. I still got about 50% of the puzzle pieces by myself. A few of the jump puzzles were a problem. I didn't know if I was doing what I was "supposed" to be doing in order to get through the stage. Turns out I was on the right track, but I wasn't bouncing off the goomba at the perfect angle to hit the next goomba to get a little bit extra boost to get to the piece. Small things like jump height could have made it a lot easier to stomach.

echochrome was cleaner and more linear. Point A to Point B. I didn't have to worry about what position a bad guy was in forward or backward in time to get a key, but not the one-time-only-use key to open the door, but not the rewinding door. Shit's annoying. I did like the world with the shadow guy, though. It had a logic to it that was intuitive and fun.

It's like the Monkey Island games. How would I know that the programmer wanted me to use object A on device B to get Object D? The nice thing about the remakes is that there's a hint system with different levels of help. Plus, those games are actually funny and fun to play, even if you have to try everything.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

I did progress through the entire game without collecting puzzle pieces (because after all, it never suggests that you should) and it was pointless and boring as shit.

I'm dumb-struck by this statement. That's like playing a shooter without reloading then complaining how all the guns suck.

First of all, this was said in response to the many MANY arguments that "I didn't even need to get the puzzle pieces to have fun." Of course you're right that that argument is bullshit. And I did get a good chunk of the puzzle pieces myself. Most of the time I knew what to do, but because I wasn't doing exactly what the game was wanting, it seemed like I had no idea.

 

[distended]

It's like the Monkey Island games. How would I know that the programmer wanted me to use object A on device B to get Object D?

No, it's really nothing like Monkey Island games. If you think Braid was cheap you're just not as good at puzzle games as you'd like to think.

 

[zelda2fanboy]

It's not quite the second coming that it was made out to be, but it is a very well done puzzle game with lovely aesthetics. I suspect that your intense dislike stems largely from impatience. Braid is a difficult game, one that your brain needs time to wrap around, so solutions don't come as quickly or easily as in other puzzle games.

It's perfectly ok for you to not have the patience to work out the puzzles; if you don't find that kind of thing satisfying, then Braid obviously won't be much fun for you. But that's not an indication of bad design, merely an indication of a bad fit. Not all games are meant for all players.

I guess the main source of my annoyance is the flow. Portal keeps you moving, throwing in new ideas with one puzzle after another. echochrome gives you a wide variety of puzzles to work with and there's a lot of experimentation and room for creativity. I hate the feeling of being stuck/trapped and I got that a lot from Braid. I felt as if there was some key information being kept from me, so once I started using help movies, I couldn't stop. Sometimes I was right (it was something really abstract and obscure that I never would have figured out) and sometimes I was wrong and I just wasn't performing the actions in just the right way to get the piece.

Either way, I only paid $3.75 for it. Woohoo for Sony PSN guilt!

 

[rabidmidget]

I wouldn't say those puzzles were flawed, in fact I found them really well designed as they encouraged you to really think about what you're doing.

Personally I didn't find the story-telling that bad at all, the main gameplay mechanic itself was a form of symbolism, which is a technique that is almost never seen in game design.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

I will agree that the fact that your powers aren't clearly explained can be frustrating, but at the same time I like that it encouraged experimentation and exploration, which are at the heart of any good puzzle.

I will agree that the way the story was told in big word blocks and only really integrated into the gameplay at the very end was frustrating. Also, it often tipped into "pretentious" territory.

I will also agree that considering its length, 1200 MS Points is probably too much to ask for the game, especially at this point in it's life-cycle.

(That brings me to a tangental question...why don't XBLA/PSN/WiiWare&VC games EVER drop in price? I can understand Braid being $15 U.S. at the start, but now that he's surely recouped his investments, Mr. Blow could certainly drop the price. And that's just one example of downloadable titles not behaving anything like retail releases price-wise.)

Despite all of the above, I loved Braid. In terms of the gameplay, the platform-puzzles had deceptively simple solutions and challenged me a way that other video games don't. And pretentiousness and lack of integration aside, the story did make me think about and consider things like the nature of obsession and loss. I believe Braid is a strong example of video games as a higher art form.

At the same time I completely understand why it's not everyone's cup of tea.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

I know you'll accuse me of being lazy, dumb, casual, or wanting my hand held. That's not the case.

Oh good, thanks for clearing that up. Because that's exactly what is sounds like.

Aah, flame war!!!!

Snip

Yeah sorry I was just being a dick. It's fine that you didn't like the game, but I don't think it was "bad" by any measure. That shadow mechanic that you found intuitive? I found most of the mechanics intuitive. Granted, it wasn't always immediately apparent in every puzzle that you had to "go here, flip this, stand here, reverse time, double jump, etc.," but that was part of the fun of figuring things out yourself.

In addition to the solid puzzling/platforming and surprising ending (if you've been paying attention), the scenery and music were both just delightful. Like Susan said, it wasn't the Second Coming of Jesus, but it was refreshingly artistic and challenging in a culture of otherwise gritty, realistic sameness.

But yeah, you're free to disagree.

 

[Piorn]

The only thing worth criticizing in my opinion would be the that if you assembled the world 3 Puzzle, you could not get the star and had to restart the game.
But this is a rather short game, so no problem doing it again.

 

[lacktheknack]

Yes, I thought Braid was pretentious, annoying, and arrogant, And that was before it started fucking up the puzzle design without considering the player. Its not fair to assume that players will walk into a level and then just "Oh, yeah, now my powers have changed".

Oh, and the story was nothing but a cliché wrapped in a morally heavy boringly named sandwich.

It boggles my mind how people have had a shred of enjoyment from this game.

The most popular theory is that it was about the atomic bomb. How very cliched.

And it's perfectly fair to expect you to adapt to a new power considering that there's ONE power per world (excepting time reversal). Never more, it doesn't change in the middle. So your complaint is actually a PLUS, as it means a wider array of puzzles.

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

I thought it was truly a beautiful game. A game that defines that video games can be art. I enjoyed the story the twist at the end, and the gameplay. Plus the music was great. To this day best arcade game.

 

[ACman]

There were elements that were rubbish. The mishandled story really removed any sense of narrative drive towards what we were doing. Really they could have jettisoned the story and the arty sprites/music and gone really retro and it wouldn't have mattered. While the end sequence is great it has no context as the rest of the story feels like it belongs in a readme file.

Also, the gameplay was pure puzzle, so was it necessary to have bosses? I know they weren't really that hard but aside from being easily killable once one knew the obvious mechanic to kill them they felt like little more than additional tributes to the 2D Mario series.

And there are puzzles in the game that I know how to finish but haven't as they require ludicrous jump timing abilities which I left back in 1994.The whole point of a puzzle it that it should be simple once it is clear what needs to be done. I left my willingness to repeat the same jumps over and over again in 1994 with Super Mario World.

That said Braid had a few muthafuckers in the puzzle department which I enjoyed. It was nice feeling completely stumped for ages only to figure it out after hours of experimentation or having that eureka moment while shopping or something and returning home to apply your moment of genius inspiration. But that was all that was there and only a tiny number off the pieces really provided that buzz.

I guess people want maybe original 2D Prince of Persia with time powers to make the deathtraps and crap swordplay more bareable.

Maybe this time manipulation mechanic should be applied to a MetroidVania clone where new areas are opened up when puzzles are solved.

Or has anybody applied time manipulation to portals?

There is Cake. It will be unbaked. (Getoff! Its my first cake joke. At least it's in context.)

 

[Halo Fanboy]

I found Braid to be slightly easy. I don't think I was ever stuck for more than 10 mins. I can see where OP's first complaint comes in, but I didn't have that kind of trouble.

The only puzzle games that have broke out into the mainstream recently have been only moderately challenging, (Portal, Limbo) cue game journos and a smug internet community acting like thinking in computer games is a lost practice.

 

[scnj]

Braid made me think a lot on two levels, both as a puzzle game and as an interpretive story, so I enjoyed it very much. It was one of my favourites of 2008, and there were some great games that year.

 

[WorldCritic]

I wasn't a fan. I don't want to say it was a bad game, but I definitely don't understand why so many people love it. Oh yeah, and back when I still watched X-Play Blair Herter went on a rant about how awesome Braid was and that just lowered my opinion of it even more.

 

[Omega Pirate]

Well the game itself was alright, I did get every single puzzle piece. I think I used a guide for about 3 of them because I spent a a few hours on each of them and couldn't get them.

However, the only reason I got the game is because it was part of the humble bundle 2. I would have never considered getting it for full price. It was short, if you didn't go for the puzzle piece's. So I can understand where the OP is coming from.